The US isn't necessarily better but it's the most important...both de jure (US foreign policy) and de facto (coca cola, movies etc).

I kind of said that half jokingly but BBC news does focus a lot on US politics. Loads of things on the healthcare bill.

I mean, how do you even measure that? There's a billion or so people in China who are going to tell you that China is a much bigger influence on them than the US. And I'm sure most of the people in the neighboring regions (also fairly heavily populated) are going to say China is a much bigger influence as well.

I agree with both of these posts.

The US obv isn't the biggest influence on every single person in the world... but I think people in China understand the global influence of the US.

A way to measure it would be to look at how many ultra skilled people (mathematicians, engineers etc) the US imports vs how much they export. The US is certainly exceptional in terms of retaining and importing talented people.

Given that the US is still the world's most powerful financial and military leader, it's entirely possible and plausible that it is both the greatest force for good, and the greatest force for evil, in the world.

I agree the USA is an exceptional country, but the people are stupid as ****.

Awesome, thanks.

Lol Mississippi (I think)

I gave an example of a billion or two people. And I agree that people in China do understand the global influence of the US. I would bet they understand it a lot more than people in the US understand the global influence of the Chinese.

That's one really arbitrary way. Another arbitrary way would be by nobel prizes won (probably also won by the Americans). Another would be by amount of goods manufactured. Another would be by surveying people. And so on and so on.

If I had to pick a country with the most global influence by my own definition of the word I'd probably pick the US. But its definitely close and there are lots of reasonable ways of defining "global influence" where the Chinese would be ahead.

Doesn't this sort of prove the point?

Lol, no. Being more ignorant isn't proof of anything.

The Chinese can feel the US's influence cuz it's powerful. Americans can't really feel the influence of the Chinese because we radiate awesome. Like how the sun doesn't really notice if you shine a flashlight in its direction.

We're all living in America
America is wunderbar.

my fav candy bar!

I think it's good to be patriotic and nationalistic to a degree. The point where it ceases to make good sense is where people throw rational action out the window and react physically to perceived offenses against the name of their beloved motherland. That, I think, says more about the individual tho. I know cats that'll fight ya over the UF/FSU rivalry who've never set foot on either campus!

Grunching so I haven't read the rest of the responses but I've had numerous arguments with my dad about this. He kinda just closes his mind off on this subject. He complains about the government and has absolutely no knowledge of what it's like to live in other countries, yet he demands that the US is the greatest country in the world. Drives me absolutely crazy to be honest.

Are there any Fins ITT?

exact same situation with my dad, although he has been to other countries. he acknowledges that the US gov is working for the 1% and generally agrees with most of my (fairly liberal) positions. however, he maintains that America is like no place else in the world, and definitely believes in American exceptionalism. maybe it's just a generational thing (their parents served in WWII, etc).

This is not a love song.

nach Afrika kommt Santa Claus,
und vor Paris steht Mickey Maus.

In a great country, you can say the country is a POS and nothing will happen. In a POS country, if you say it is a POS country you will be forced to apologize.

MS isn't even bottom 10, oddly enough. VT is the lowest.

Everyone that has said "no" ITT: yr wrong, READ A HISTORY BOOK

#QED

Don't forget to pick out a "modern history" one though.

Just out of curiosity what does history have to do with it? If I'm judging the best country in the world I'm looking at present conditions.

I mean the Roman empire was pretty ****ing impressive at the height of its power but I'd rather live in most modern day countries instead.

Could somebody that thinks America is the best country in the world explain what their justification is for that?

This page is kind of cool though: http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/#/11011111100

There are tons of reasons but the only one I need is that we have football.